Advanced Practice Provider Critical Care Boot Camp: A Simulation-Based Curriculum

The demand for advanced practice providers (APPs) is increasing across the United States to meet necessary provider staffing requirements including in intensive care settings. Currently, participation in formal postgraduate training programs, or residencies, for APPs is not required for clinical practice, such that most of the APPs immediately enter into the workforce following completion of their initial graduate-level training. Consequently, this results in a supervised training period until APPs develop the necessary competencies to practice more autonomously. Educational programs that support specialty competency development may facilitate the transition of APPs into clinical practice, allowing them to be credentialed to perform essential procedures as quickly as possible. The goal of this boot camp was to provide training for APPs in common critical care, high-risk procedures, and to provide leadership development for high-risk cases to expedite their orientation process. The following manuscript describes our experience with the development, implementation, and short-term evaluation of this training program.